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Lightshadow's Repentance/Part 2
Inter= "I told you, Cherrynose! Flightpaw! He'll never come to us!" Darknight called over his shoulder as he bounded away. Cherrynose shook her head. "I thought he was wrong, but..." "I believe in him," Flightpaw said, gazing into the distance toward the border. "He'll change." |-|Chapter 6= He opened his eyes to shadowy tree trunks, a dark, empty sky, and damp, foggy air. Mist surrounded him, and the only thing he could see for many fox-lengths was trees. Well, it wasn't like I was expecting to go to StarClan, he thought. He stood up, stretched, and looked around. The eerie silence seemed kind of comforting, in a way. Lightshadow had always liked his solitude. Maybe life—er, death—here won't be so bad after all. He walked around in a circle, then placed both front paws on a tree trunk and began to climb. He grimaced as the rotting bark shifted under him, but persisted, and eventually his hard work was rewarded. He sat in a fork of two thick branches, observing the forest. After a while he came to think about Whitecloud. Whitecloud, who had killed him. He remembered her last words to him. I know, Lightshadow. I'm sorry. She knew. She knew about his crimes and his killing and everything he'd done. But did she know why? He remembered the day he had committed his first murder. Murders, plural. He remembered seeing cats' somber expressions throughout the camp, seeing his siblings, Whitepaw, Shadepaw, and Sparrowpaw, grieving with them. He remembered wondering why they grieved for cats who had been mean to them. And he realized now that they understood more than he ever had. They knew that the only way to go to StarClan was to spread love even in times of hate. To empathize and to care, even if you didn't want to. To go to StarClan, you had to treat others better than they treated you. That's why Whitecloud had apologized as she took his breath, his feeling, his life. Lightshadow had never apologized to anyone. ---- ' Over the next half-moon. ' There was no day or night in the Dark Forest, but Lightshadow had a good sense of time. He knew when the moon set and rose in the living world. So he timed his sleep with his estimations, and overall was able to keep well rested. Not that he needed to, since he was dead. Lightshadow had realized that he could stay awake for the entire rest of his existence, but he thought that that might eventually cause him to go insane. So he decided to pretend he was still alive, in some ways. He didn't need to eat, which was good, because there was no prey in the Place of No Stars. Only trees, dead weeds, and fog. Often during his waking hours he sat and thought about his family. He wished he could see them. Just before his death, he'd had a suspicion that Peartree might have been pregnant again; he'd seen her taking more prey from the pile than usual and she seemed to be getting a little clumsier. Also, he often spotted Thrushstorm smiling secretly to himself in corners. Of course, Peartree would have told her mate. After a while, though, he couldn't think about his family anymore. His brain had gone in circles for long enough. So it moved on to himself. His actions, his feelings, his life. He imagined what would have happened if he had not killed all those cats. Marshclaw, Graycloud, and Silvertail could have watched his siblings become warriors. Sparkstar could have given one more life to help SkyClan. Berrythorn could have become leader one day. Rushcloud could have lived an extra few moons advising her Clanmates with her wisdom. Beekit could have lived his life! He had taken all those opportunities away from cats who maybe were just having a bad day, when they did those things to his family. Made them feel embarrassed, or uncomfortable, or depressed. Maybe they felt a little grumpy, or a little tired, or a little annoyed. Unlike him. He had meant to hurt the cats he had hurt. And they had been. |-|Chapter 7= ' A half-moon later. ' Lightshadow raised his head to an odd glow above the forest. A reddish light was filtering through the trees. There was never light in the Dark Forest. He stretched and tested his claws on a tree nearby. The rotten bark crumbled off and fell at his feet. Well, if he couldn't climb it, he would jump. He was a spirit. So he shouldn't be able to be harmed by falling, right? He bunched his muscles under him and leaped into the tree. He could feel the wood groaning beneath his paws. Any moment it would collapse. He strained to see above the leaves smothering his visions. A glimpse of nighttime. No stars filled the sky. Only one thing broke the blackness. A red moon, the color of blood, halfway between moonrise and moonhigh. As he stared, the world shook. The tree buckled under his weight. And brightness spilled into the forest. ---- Lightshadow had to blink for a full minute. He hadn't seen the sun for an entire moon, and had forgotten what the blazing warmth of its rays felt like on his face. When he got used to it, he stood up, from his position on the ground where the tree had fallen, and stepped closer to it. He had forgotten how much he was missing. After a few moments of basking in the light, he began to think about what it actually meant. The sun never came into StarClan. And what had that shaking been? He jumped into another tree, determined to find out. As he climbed higher up the rotten wood, he saw the Place of No Stars spread out beneath him. A sea of dark greenish-blackish-brown as far as he could see. He turned, and that's when he saw it. A misty gray fog, seeping in like a great wall of clouds. Sunlight filtered through it, piercing the forest with beams of white light. What is that? It didn't look like StarClan. StarClan was never foggy or misty. But it definitely wasn't the Dark Forest. Lightshadow leaped down from the tree just as it began to fall. He ran through the forest in the direction of the fog. As he got closer, he began to see more signs of it. Puffs of gray under his paws. The air growing damp with humidity. Before long, his paws began to sweat. But still he ran. The barrier came upon him suddenly, like a giant block of solid air. He charged straight into it. Since he was dead, it didn't hurt him, but it knocked him onto his back, enabling him to stare up at the wall. It seemed to stretch forever into the black sky. He got up, and looked through the barrier. He couldn't see anything. It was all fog and mist and haze. He tentatively pressed his paw against the barrier. He couldn't move it. "Oh, you're not going to get anywhere doing that," a voice said. Lightshadow turned around. A silvery-gray tabby she-cat covered in scars stood beside him. Another cat. Lightshadow hadn't seen another cat since his death. |-|Chapter 8= He wasn't usually one to ask impolite questions, but... "Who are you?" The she-cat simply laughed. Lightshadow got the idea that she might be a bit insane. "My name is Smokebird. And yours?" "Lightshadow," he said. "And—how can we be talking to each other? I mean, it's... impossible." Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Fanon) Category:Content (Qibli77)